“Matt!” he yelled. “Light this place up!”
The wizard gripped the staff and turned toward the flying menace. “Oonurarki!” he yelled. From the top of his staff, the dim light became blinding and hurtled outward with such force that a shock wave struck everyone and hurled back the kirii. Scores of them had been flying toward them and were so disoriented that several fell all the way to the water and splashed around. Suddenly the jaws of something rose to clamp around one and drag it under. There was another lifeform down there. And above them, the kirii seemed in chaos, but it was hard to tell.
Ryan yelled, “Matt! We can’t see.”
“Sorry!” The wizard laughed and dimmed the light. Ryan got the impression he loved the power.
Jolian dodged more tentacles, swiping at them with her nails and drawing more blood. But only his sword looked like it was going to help, unless Matt did something. Anna had filled the sack and now scampered toward the entrance.
“Time to go!” Eric yelled.
But then everything seemed to happen at once. The kirii closed in, stones fired from slings clattering on the ground and cavern walls behind them. Eric threw one knife, then another, two kirii dropping to the water with a splash. Matt sent a jet of flames at others, setting a dozen of them on fire, before retreating. A tentacle flew toward Jolian, but she dodged it only to be grabbed by another and hauled high over the water upside down. The leviathan finally rose to the surface, a huge, black, oblong head appearing with a mouth opened wide, multiple rows of teeth as big as a person ready to clamp on Jolian. It dropped her toward its gaping maw, clearly expecting a meal but not the transformation that came. The dragon assumed her true form as she fell, wings snapping out as her mouth stretched wide and a torrent of flames roared down on the leviathan. Deafening screeches filled the air as Jolian landed atop the beast, which tried to submerge only to have Jolian dig claws into its head and beat the air furiously, lifting it from the water more and more.
Ryan stood transfixed until a stone struck his helmet with a loud bang, dazing him. Hearing little flapping wings near him, he swung upward without looking and felt his sword bite into something. He turned, swinging again, slicing through a kirii that he saw up close this time as it hovered before him. A snout like a dog jutted between yellow eyes, a drooling mouth of fangs snapping at him even though it was much too far away to matter. A knife from Eric struck that one in the face and it fell, another kirii replacing it, brown leathery wings pounding the air as clawed arms reached for him. He cut into one of them and retreated as more kirii closed in. They smelled of rot and seemed intent on grabbing him, to fly away with him as Novir had suggested. An energy pulse hurled them back, and he looked back to Matt and nodded.
Suddenly a thundering roar of rumbling stone and earth came from the exit behind Anna and they looked over in new alarm, not seeing a cause, but Ryan sensed it was farther up. Had the passage out crumbled? They gathered at the opening.
Still holding the bag of writhing fish, Anna asked, “Where’s Novir? I just realized he wasn’t here when I got here with the fish.”
Eric looked around. “The leviathan didn’t get him, did it?”
“Pretty sure it didn’t,” said Ryan. “We need to get out of here. We just need Jolian.”
They turned to see the dragon biting into the leviathan’s head repeatedly, yanking giant hunks of it off and spitting them out. The tentacles had all stopped moving, and the creature seemed dead. Some kirii actually went for Jolian, who jumped off the leviathan and with one stroke of her wings, landed in the shallow water near them, being unable to get closer in that form because of the cavern walls. She turned toward the kirii, and Ryan thought she smiled before blasting them with fire. The smell of burned hair and flesh filled the cavern as bodies hit the water. The dragon changed form again and sauntered over to them.
“Ready?” she asked with a smile. She stopped before Ryan and looked him up and down, then wiped one finger across his armor. It came away thick with black blood, which she licked off her finger.
“Let’s go,” said Eric, grabbing the remaining torch. Novir had taken the other. “I have a bad feeling about this.”
They hurried into the tunnel and jogged as fast as they could while not banging their heads or risking a twisted ankle. Whether Matt had summoned the leviathan by accident or not, they would likely never know, and Ryan put it from his mind. The thought of being trapped inside a mountain or having to find their way out through some other path, and then make it down to the dragons, worried him. And with good reason. They soon stopped at a rockfall that had blocked the path.
Eric said, “Unless Soliander or Jolian can do a spell, I don’t see getting through this.”
“Is going back easier?” Anna asked, frowning. “I don’t like either option.”
Jolian turned to Matt. “We may need two spells. One to move the rocks, another to hold up the tunnel until we pass so that it doesn’t collapse more. My magic is limited and is for dragon-related elements.”
That surprised Ryan. “You can’t do other things?”
“We can but rarely learn them. The other races mostly use magic. My brother is an exception, spending enough time with humans, elves, and others to have learned. So we can. We just don’t.”
Seeing Matt thinking, they waited, Ryan feeling impatient. But finally, the wizard had an idea and coordinated with the dragon. The rest of them stood back as Jolian cast a spell to bolster the ceiling, and Matt cast a spell that vaporized ten feet of rock. He had to do this three times as they advanced and finally made it to the other side. Once everyone was out, Jolian let her spell end and another cascade of debris filled much of the tunnel, though not as much as before. As the others left, the dragon and wizard looked back at the collapse, Jolian studying the ceiling.
“This was no accident,” said Jolian, turning around with a glare and striding toward the exit. “Novir did this.”
“How?” Matt asked, coming behind.
“I’ll find out when I strangle him.”
They ran through the tunnels with Matt’s staff casting light far ahead of them, Jolian taking the lead as she expressed confidence about their path. After another few minutes, they heard a faint roar ahead, then another. Ryan assumed it was Sebast and Brazin. Jolian picked up her pace, exuding rage. The roars grew louder amid the sound of ice shattering with a loud crack. Then it went quiet for a minute until they burst from the tunnel and paused. All except Jolian, who continued past the line of trees separating them from her kin. The others followed and came into view of a battle just as Jolian yelled her brother’s name in disbelieving surprise or anger.
The green dragon, Sebast, lay on his side, one wing visibly broken, shards of ice embedded all along that side of his body, including his neck and head. Gashes that appeared to be from another dragon’s claws punctured the body, and several evenly spaced holes that looked like bite marks were on his neck. A green liquid oozed from his nostrils, dripping on the ground and hissing as leaves emitted smoke from its touch. From the lolling head, gaping mouth, and unmoving, open eyes, he seemed dead.
Brazin reared up on two hind legs, his blue body showing burn marks from the green liquid that dripped off of him. Two gashes in his belly oozed red blood, and Ryan saw the body expanding as the dragon sucked in a large breath that heralded trouble. Two baleful eyes fixed them. On his back sat Novir, who lifted his crossbow and fired at the group just before a blast of frost from Brazin’s throat flew toward them. Matt put up a shield, and the bolt bounced harmlessly away, but the ice struck the barrier and stuck to it, forming a dome over the invisible protection. As the blast continued, Eric stepped back and then ran away through the trees as Ryan watched, wondering what he was doing.
Chapter 6 – Flight of the Dragons
Eric sprinted through the trees, using them to hide his intentions. Once out of sight, he chose another path and began creeping back toward the blue dragon, hoping to emerge where they neither expected him nor saw him
.
“Brazin!” Ryan yelled, “you have a coward on your back.”
Eric looked over at them but couldn’t see the knight’s position. Maybe it didn’t matter as long as he kept up a banter, but then another dragon joined the distraction.
“Brother!” Jolian called out, voice anguished. “What have you done?”
“I have done what I am commanded, dear sister. Do not follow or your death is next.”
In reply, Jolian transformed into a dragon, and in that moment, Eric threw a knife at Novir. The blade was halfway there as he took off at a run. It did not surprise him that his throw missed, partly because Brazin moved. Seeing the blade go by, Novir turned and fired the crossbow at him but didn’t come close. Eric hurled another knife as he ran, then another as he adjusted the aim. The last blade struck Novir in the side.
“Fly!” the guardsman yelled in pain, pulling the blade out and dropping it.
Brazin leaped up and beat his wings furiously, lifting into the sky. Jolian looked ready to follow when Eric called out.
“Wait! Not without me!” He ran for the dragon, who turned with impassioned eyes. He thought she would refuse, but she lowered a wing as her brother continued a climb.
“Climb up the wing, Andier. My magic will keep you on.”
He raced up the wing, the footing bouncy until he ran along the bone at the front, wondering why they didn’t just use magic all the time instead of using saddles, which there was no time to put on. Reaching the spine, he straddled it and grabbed a handful of red dragon’s mane, the insanity of what he was about to do filling him with adrenaline and fear.
“Eric!” Ryan called. “We shouldn’t separate!”
“No choice!” he yelled down. “Wait for us!”
He nearly bit his tongue as Jolian leaped up, wings beating the air. The time for talk had passed. She climbed effortlessly, Eric hanging on with effort. The idea of letting go to find out how well she was keeping him there with magic made him laugh, but he knew that if she failed for even a second, he was plummeting to his death. He didn’t need to look down to know his knuckles were white. He squeezed her enormous body with both legs, but as he did so, he had the sense that they were almost attached to her back, as if it and him were magnetic. He tried to lift one knee away and found he couldn’t.
“You will feel better if you trust me,” Jolian said, and he wondered if she felt him struggling despite what he assumed was a preoccupation with gaining altitude. Brazin had turned away, high enough above the peaks to soar for escape to the west and Ortham, but Jolian needed a few more seconds to pursue. Eric looked down and saw that his friends were growing smaller beneath him, a half dome of ice still standing behind them, since they had come out from behind it. With a pang, he sensed he might never see them again.
He yelled to the dragon, “Just tell me why people normally use a saddle and I will relax.”
“Because they are as terrified as you if they do not. It is not actually necessary and is frankly a nuisance.”
He laughed despite himself. If that wasn’t a believable answer, nothing was. He first relaxed his legs and found himself secure there despite the wind tearing at him. He tried to lift his butt but learned he was unable, as if strapped into an invisible saddle. He finally took a deep breath as she turned for pursuit, and he relaxed his grip bit by bit. By the time they were soaring away, he had almost let go but remained leaning forward to shield himself from the wind.
Jolian was bigger and more powerful than Sebast, whom he had last ridden. She was also larger than her wounded brother. As they flew, it felt like they would inevitably gain on the blue dragon. It was just a matter of time, which was wasting. But what would they do? He had no real say in this, he knew, but would Jolian attack her own family? Nothing could answer that, and he realized worrying about it was senseless. He could better use his time to assess what had happened.
Novir was a traitor. Had the Orb of Dominion compromised him? It seemed plausible. But then why had he taken part in the summoning of the Ellorian Champions? If he wasn’t enthralled, then he was doing this for another reason. Was he in league with the Lords of Fear? Or the one who had the master orb? Was that why he was not enthralled? It wouldn’t be necessary if the orb had already gotten him.
But what of Brazin? The dragon said that he had done as commanded. Who had ordered him? It seemed unlikely that he gave a damn what Novir said. That coward giving orders to a majestic dragon seemed implausible. Had Brazin come under the orb’s spell? Eric didn’t know how that could have happened and cursed his ignorance. Everything he knew had come from Novir and the wizard.
Could they trust Derin? How much of what they’d been told had been a lie? He wondered if the Orbs of Dominion even existed, or worked as described. Was there even a king enthralled, not to mention a dwarven queen? Maybe there wasn’t, and this was why the summoning happened out of sight. What about these Lords of Fear? How could he and the others prepare for a fight against an enemy they have only heard of and when they aren’t even sure about the identities or capabilities? He couldn’t remember how much of that information had come from Novir, or who said what, but no one in the room had contradicted anything. The only person he trusted right now, aside from his friends, was Jolian.
He remembered the spell Soliander had cast on Matt to read his mind. It was horribly invasive, beyond unethical, but it seemed almost like a good idea. A single lie could get them all killed. How else could they know who they could trust? Supposedly the Quest Rings had an oracle-like quality that validated some of a quest before bringing them, but how much did it really know? And there was no way to know how well was it working. After all, the rings weren’t bringing the real champions, just them, by mistake. What else were they wrong about?
Eric had never been the trusting type. That was Ryan, maybe even Matt, for different reasons. Ryan wanted to believe the best of others as his faith in God guided him. But Matt was just a little naïve and didn’t see bullshit coming.
Eric had neither. Juvenile delinquency, some time on the streets, and a few poor foster parents had given him street smarts. He needed to rely on them more now. He had gone soft, his last foster parents being good to him, his dark past behind him, a steady job and brighter future ahead. He hadn’t needed his suspicion or calculating mindset in years. But now it was crucial, and he vowed to ask far more questions from now on. Never mind if someone felt offended by an improper question. He imagined Anna frowning at him. He would have a talk with all of them about it. No one was supposed to admire or like Andier of Roir anyway, and Eric would take being feared and alive over being liked but dead any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
And the first person he would try out his new probing mindset on was Novir once he caught up to the little shit.
They hadn’t thought to ask when the dragons had come into the situation. Where had the orb been then? Was it long gone before the dragons arrived? How could only one of them have been taken over by it? He sighed in frustration. Maybe the dragon had been compromised some other way. The only way to know was to capture both of them.
Jolian was gaining ground with every mile, the plains beyond the mountains visible in the distance. Novir frequently looked back, Brazin less so. Eric smiled. They had to know it was inevitable. Then he realized his disadvantage. Neither of their quarry would think twice about hurting Jolian, who likely didn’t want to hurt her brother if she could avoid it. And Brazin had some magic, more than Jolian. Maybe Matt should have been here instead of him. Too late now.
Not sure if she would hear him, he yelled, “Do you have a plan?”
“I know my brother.”
“Are you sure?”
“We used to play this game as children. He will not triumph. I know better than to teach even family all of my tricks.”
He had to take her word for that. Suddenly there was no more time to worry about it. With only fifty yards separating them now, Brazin dove. Jolian continued forward instead of following, ban
king sharply just as her brother rolled sideways onto his back, already spewing shards of ice upward at where he clearly expected his sister to be. The shards flew past into the sky, striking nothing. Had she seen it coming? Jolian banked again and hurtled downward as Brazin rolled onto his stomach, snapping out his wings to continue, but he’d lost forward momentum and Jolian gained with terrifying speed. Eric felt certain she could kill Brazin with little trouble as they neared. What was she going to do? Driving him to the ground had to be the plan.
With Brazin ahead and below them, Jolian soared down and blasted fire into her brother’s path, but slightly to his right. It came as no surprise that Brazin banked left, right into his sister’s trajectory. She was clever. Eric braced for the collision as Jolian kicked downward with what felt like all four legs, striking Brazin’s body with a jarring thud so deep that she knocked the breath from the dragon’s body with an audible grunt from him. Eric heard the cough-like whoosh of air from him, a mist of frost expelled as if by accident. Now Brazin fell as if knocked off balance or struggling to regain control, his legs kicking wildly, wings jerked by the wind instead of used skillfully. He pulled himself into a ball as he plummeted, then spread his wings again, once more in control as he looked around for his sister. Eric thought he saw fear.
And it was too late. The trees and a lake weren’t far below now and Brazin looked helpless as he beat the air to gain speed and altitude. Jolian closed in from above again. This time she breathed fire directly at Brazin, who heard the flames and rolled once more, countering them with ice, but again the red dragon saw it coming and had already banked left, then right, reaching Brazin just as he completed the roll. At the last moment, Jolian slowed herself and grabbed her brother’s neck with her front claws, one back leg clubbing down at his body so that Eric wondered if she had just knocked off Novir. But he had no time to care. The lake rushed up at them until both dragons spread their wings to slow the impending crash near the shoreline. A huge fountain of water hurtled into the air, their momentum making them careen onto the short sandy beach, a line of trees near.
The Light Bringer: An Epic Fantasy Adventure Novel (The Dragon Gate Series Book 2) Page 10
